The Most Horrible X-Mas Ever
The Most Horrible X-mas Ever (pronounced "The Most Horrible Christmas Ever") is the twenty sixth episode of Invader Zim. It was the last episode to air before the series' cancellation. Plot This episode takes place two million years in the future, in which a robotic snowman named Mr. Sludgy is telling children the story of the "most horrible Christmas ever". It all started when Zim, GIR and Minimoose were on the streets trying to make monies... with no luck. All they receive is a beating heart and a tuna sandwich. Eventually, however, the alien notices that fat men in red coats and white beards are "stealing all his money". He captures one and, upon interrogating his victim, learns the story of Santa Claus. Amazed by the incredible amount of power Santa has over the humans, Zim orders his computer to drain the Mall Santa's brain. As the Christmas-y knowledge in the human's brain flashes on a screen before Zim's eyes, he begins to cackle maniacally as he formulates his next, foolproof plan to destroy the humans. Zim decides to create a giant Santa suit that he can use in order to pretend to be Santa, and have more power over the humans and become their ruler. Dib figures out Zim's scheme and heads out to stop him in order to not only save Christmas, but to save the entire human race as well. Unfortunately, Zim has the support of every human on Earth, except for Professor Membrane, who has a grudge against Santa. Zim gathers the human race together and commands them to build a transporter for "Santa". Dib confronts Zim in front of everybody, trying to expose him as a fraud. Instead, the humans treat Dib as usually and Zim has him dragged away to the "Jingle Jail". Dib escapes from his prison on Zim's ship and disguises himself as one of Zim's robot elves. Zim, not realizing that the elf is actually Dib, starts venting with him in the room. Zim explains that he is using the Santa suit to trick humanity into building a teleporter that will take them to the Tallest for enslavement. But the suit Zim is wearing is starting to take over his body, because it actually thinks it is Santa. Shortly afterwards, Zim finally sees through Dib's disguise and launches him out of the ship and onto a sinking chunk of ice. Almost immediately, Dib calls Gaz for help. She quickly comes to rescue her brother in Tak's Ship, but only to beat him up after he confessed that he decapitated her Bitey the Vampire doll. Dib then contacts his dad, who gives his son permission to use all of his anti-Santa arsenal. Armed with a giant robot suit, Dib confronts Zim again at the North Pole, where the teleporter is complete. Unfortunately for both Zim and Dib, the Santa suit has taken full control over the alien, and Dib is forced to battle it. In the end, Dib's robot suit defeats it, Zim is freed from the suit, and the mutated Santa monster is launched into space. But it's not a happy ending; Zim, dressed as the Easter Platypus, convinces the human race that Dib killed Santa and they all tackle him. With the story ended, we go back to Mr. Sludgy talking to the kids, and he explains to them that Santa is in fact not dead, but is in space gathering strength to attack the Earth every Christmas, and that is why they live in a protective dome. The Uncut Version * At the beginning, "EARTH: TWO MILLION YEARS IN THE FUTURE" appears in the lower-right corner of the screen instead of in the bottom center. * The snowman originally called Zim and Dib, "Zam & Doob," to make it seem like some details were forgotten over time. * The line "Watch my dog eat snow!" was originally "Watch it eat snow!" * The line "The amazing snow-eating trick isn't working!" was originally "The amazing snow-eat trick isn't working!" * During the scene where the mall Santa tells Zim about Santa, his eyes originally made a bubbling noise as they drifted in separate directions. * During the interview with Zim in the Santa suit, there was originally going to be rock music, and Zim was going to sound like Hulk Hogan. * The Uncut Version depicts "Santa" 's interview as a referenc to WCW's n.W.o. * At the end of the interview, after Dib says "Oh no," instead of Zim saying "Oh yeah!", the news anchor was going to say "That sounds like a lot of fun!" * Zim's line, "We don't have much time! I only hope the suit can absorb all the Santa data! This is not going to be easy, GIR!" was originally just "This is not going to be easy, GIR!" * Mr. Sludgy's line "Zim was already preparing for his trip to the North Pole when..." originally ended with "-when something happened..." * Zim's line "The hardest part was making the Santa suit! I used a Vortian liquid substance," was originally "The hardest part was getting my hands on the suit! A Vortian liquid gear." * Zim's line "An ingenious brain interface allows me to command the suit!" was originally "-to command it!" * Originally, after everyone runs away from the falling debris except for 45, he was going to open his arms to accept the large hunk of debris that crushes him. This was cut. * During the battle between Dib and Santa, there was suspenseful music, but this was turned down in favor of Christmas-y music. Facts of Doom Cultural references *GIR's child costume, in the scene where he is talking to the Mall Santa, is similar to a character from Jhonen Vasquez's earlier comic, Squee!. *The children that sit surrounding Sludgy the Snowman at the beginning, middle, and end of this episode bear a slight resemblance to the characters of another cartoon series, South Park. *Mr. Sludgy is a reference to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, in which a talking snowman narrates the entire movie. *When Mr. Sludgy says, "Now, Zim hated humans more than anything", he makes a reference to How the Grinch Stole Chistmas!, where the narrator says "The Grinch hated Christmas more than anything". Trivia of Doom *In the uncut version, there was a different version of the "Jingly Bells" scene in the animatics. *Nickelodeon received one hundred three complaints from viewers saying that their children were disturbed by the mutated Santa. * When Zim asked Minimoose how much money they earned from donations, there actually was some money in the box. *There is a reason why Zim says that Minimoose has been with him all this time. The unaired episode, Nubs of Doom was supposed to air before this. In it, Zim created Minimoose. However, when Invader Zim was cancelled, ''Nubs of Doom'' and "The Most Horrible X-Mas Ever" were still being made. Nickelodeon let the staff finish "The Most Horrible X-Mas Ever", but that was the only new episode that was allowed to air after Zim's cancellation. *The crew had originally planned for there to be a montage of scenes from earlier episodes with Minimoose crudely inserted. It was a joke to show he had truly been there the whole time (see above), but they didn't have enough time to do it. *When Zim throws Minimoose down after using him as binoculars, the heart falls out of Minimoose's donations box. *Zim breaks the fourth wall for the final time (he says "Merry Platypus!" to the audience with GIR waving to them). *This is also the first and only time in the series we see the sky blue. *When the crowd is booing at Dib, he is forced to duck and you can hear a gunshot ring out. Afterward he is forced to leap back as a car gets flung at him. *This episode may be the first real evidence that the human race eventually did find out about Zim. *On the DVD the title says "The Most Horrible X-Mas Ever Part 1" twice. *Melissa Fahn, the voice of Gaz, did the higher notes of the "Jolly Boots of Doom" song, being a singer herself. Things You Might Have Missed *When the elves are singing, the little bouncing ball that hops over the words, like in a musical, is Minimoose. *When the Elves take Dib away to the Jingle Jail, GIR can be seen being taken away too. *In the uncut version, 45, an Ian Graham cameo, is crushed by part of the teleporter. However, his brother Chris can still be seen crying and clutching his brother's hat. Nickelodeon more than likely saw this as graphic for a cartoon person to be seen killed. *The bee-type insect that appears after Dib tells Gaz the truth about Bitey has a slight likeness to Pustulio, Zim's hypnotic pimple from the episode Rise of the Zitboy. *While Zim is screaming after he sees Santa, the camera pans out. The people around him are blurry, but one looks like Jhonen's character Johnny from Johnny the Homicidal Maniac. Animation Errors *When Professor Membrane sees "Santa" and crushes the television remote in his hand, there are no batteries in the remote. *When GIR is seen in the background eating candy in Zim's lab, his closest photoreceptor is gray. *When Zim extends his spider legs from his PAK in his lab, the monitors behind him are missing. However, when he starts draining the Santa knowledge from the Mall Santa's brain, they reappear. This may be an animation mistake. *At the North Pole, just before GIR directs the humans on where to place a piece of the teleporter ("Mmmhmm, a little that way, no, a little back, good, good!") you can see on the tower that the "10 Minutes to X-mas" says "10 Minuts to X-mass". Also, when he directs the humans his doggie suit tail was green instead of black. *Right before Zim tells Minimoose to stop being jolly, he takes away the candy cane in GIR's mouth. But a second after that, the candy cane was still in his mouth. *When GIR says "A little that way no a little back good, good." his tail is green instead of black. Quotes Professor Membrane: Oh boy! I hope Santa brought me 12 containers of Uranium 238! (Little Professor Membrane opens up the box. A torrent of socks fly out of the box.) NO!! SANTA HAS LET ME DOWN!!! I will turn my back on him, and devote a portion of my life to destroying Santa!!! (Little Professor Membrane is buried in a mountain of socks, still flying out of the opened present.) AAAAAH! Zim: No candy for you, chub monster, until you tell me everything you know about these red, bearded men who smell of ham, and VOMIT! Dib: Gaz, I'm trapped in a frozen wasteland! Gaz: Who isn't? Dib: And Zim's posing as Santa and he's gonna take over the world! Gaz: Yeah, that's great, Dib. Look, I gotta go. Dib: Ok, Gaz, I think it's time I told you... The dog's innocent! I used Bitey as a teleporter experiment and switched his head onto a fly's body! So, if you wanna come beat me up, you're gonna have to rescue me first because-- (Gaz is right there in Tak's Ship) Gaz: GET IN. Dib: Wow, Tak's ship! How did you-- (Gaz beats him up) Zim: (to GIR) Ho ho ho! Little fellow, you're so cute! GIR: I am! Guy in audience: Will being teleported to our doom be fun and Christmas-y? Zim: Ho ho ho! Of course it will, you hideous fool! GIR: I wants me a barrel of floss, I wants me two balls of glue... TO BE MY FRIENDS! And I wants to go dancing ...NAKED! And I wants...(later)...and a chair made of cheese and a table made of cheese and a...-- Mall Santa: AAAH! NO MORE!! GET THIS KID AWAY FROM ME!! GIR: (singing off-key) We wish you a merry jingly, we wish you a merry jingly... Zim: (to Minimoose) You! Minimoose: (squeaks happily) Zim: Stop being jolly! Minimoose: (squeaks sadly) Zim: GREAT GHOST OF DOOKIE! Elves: (singing) Bow down, bow down, before the power of San-ta, or be crushed, be crushed, by ....his jolly boots of doom!' Gallery Dib xmas 3.jpg Easter platypus.jpg GIR xmas.jpg Minimoose xmas.jpg Santa xmas.jpg Zim xmas.jpg Zim-14.jpg Zim-18.jpg Zim-19.jpg Zim-31.jpg Zim-36.jpg Zim-41-jpg References *http://www.tv.com/invader-zim/the-most-horrible-x-mas-ever/episode/143605/summary.html Category:Double Length Episodes Category:Season 2 Category:Dib Filmography Category:Gaz Filmography Category:GIR Filmography Category:Professor Membrane Filmography Category:Zim Filmography Category:Episodes Category:Altered Episodes Category:Christmas episode Category:Xmas episode Category:Christmas Category:Santa